Comments about ‘What I learned about financial independence as a Mormon missionary’

What a great lesson to learn, financial independence- that does not mean you
have to have a tonn of money, it mean for the individual to be able to take care
his/her own needs without relying on anyone else such as government programs. It
also means you can't spend more than what you take in. If only our
government and politicians can live by this principle, we'll be better of

Good article. We need more people like you with your perspective. Dave Ramsey
also teaches great financial literacy. Your debt question you pose on your blog
has already been answered by Dave; I would highly recommend reviewing
Dave's information.

" It also means you can't spend more than what you take in. If only our
government and politicians can live by this principle, we'll be better
off." So...to get the funds to bail out the banking system the government
should not have borrowed to get those funds, it should have taxed to get
them?" I doubt you get the drift of what I am saying.

Those are good things to learn on your mission, but we would do much better if
they were taught and learned in the home prior to that. We need to raise our
young men so that it does not take a mission for them to start taking life
seriously - they need to be at that point before they go.

The real take away is that your mother and father paid for it. Perhaps if you
had been taught to save and earn it first you would not have had to learn it on
a mission an could have gotten on with learning even more. I hear people all the
time in my area feeling guilty that they are not paying for their kids mission
and their kids had to work to make it happen. Mt response is usually one of a
gaping open mouth that this is now where we have arrived with missionary
service. Guilty feeling parents for not paying for it all. Sad

In the mission field you get the same allotment. I knew many budget impaired
missionaries wondering when money would come in and wanted to leech off comps
violation of mission rules. If you learn to budget will be ok.

@XelaDave I agree that parents paying for a mission shouldn't be an
expectation and that parents need to teach their kids to save, but everyone has
different goals. My dad didn't get to serve a mission when he was younger
so he wanted to make sure money wasn't a problem for us when it was time
for us to go. He still taught us how to save, though, and I had enough money
saved up to buy my first car with cash and to pay my first semester of tuition
at BYU.

Sure it would be good to learn all this before going on a mission, before
marrying, before having kids, before launching in life, but the important thing
is to learn what we need to know. It's not quite so important when and
how, but that we learn. I am still learning things that many people learn much
earlier in life. I've had to accept that the important thing is that we
learn.

"I doubt you get the gist of what I am saying." True capitalism would
have allowed the banks to fail - no bailout should have occurred (whether it was
from taxes or from debt). No bailout would've meant that lots of people
who owe variable interest rates would've been in a difficult situation -
THAT would truly teach many Americans how to budget! Personally, I'd have
LOVED to have seen NO bailout occur for ANYONE!

The cultural missionary dinner calendar is *not* about feeding poor starving
missionaries. It is about having them in our home, personal contact, to
exercise the mantle of their calling (which is a combination of them sharing
blessings and us "sustaining them in their calling" by taking heed to
what they have to say to us regarding the work)

Handing them a
packed meal or a BK/MD/Polar/KFC/etc gift card is not the right thing. Do
whatever is necessary to get them in your home, like set another place for the
required (and invited) chaperone, adjust your schedule, make the courtesy
"sorry - reschedule" call ---

I disagree, while I think there should always be an
emphasis on preparing these young men to serve, we have to realize that these
young men grow their adversity and struggles, and that there is no way to
"fully" prepare them for that, nor do I think that would be the point.
It would be sad to see a missionary serve his time and come back the same person
because he was "fully prepared" the mission allows us to stretch in ways
that we never thought we could, and rely on the Lord more than we had ever
needed to before.